


TommyInnit Wins The Prom

by travvymybeloved



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dadza, Light-Hearted, MC Personas Rather Than IRL People, Multi, No Real Names Used (except those who use their names for their characters), Prom, Skephalo is purposefully kept vague on if it's romantic or platonic, Tommy has a feminist arc, Tommy-Centric (Barely), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, its a mess of a plot line but i like it and thats what matters, multiple POVs, romantic ships are not the focus of this fic!, so it can be interpreted either way, sorry for all the tags theres just a lot going on in this fic, teen drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29693166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/travvymybeloved/pseuds/travvymybeloved
Summary: Tommy was destined for greatness. He knew this. His friends and family knew this. Everyone knew this. So really, it was just logical that he should be prom king, and like hell he was going to wait until his junior year for the opportunity. Waiting was pussy shit, and Tommy was no pussy. Tommy wanted to be prom king because he was the greatest and it just made sense. Tommy wanted to be prom king because he deserved it. If only anybody except him and Tubbo could see that this was a completely logical conclusion and just let him win. Between the prom committee trying to bar him from running, the other potential kings duking it out, his older friends going through a million different levels of interpersonal issues both with and without him, and the increasing amount of people trying to sabotage prom from even happening, making it to the crown was going to be an uphill battle.Luckily, Tommy was a big man, and big men didn’t give up easily. His name was Tommy Innit, he was one hell of a guy, and he was going to win the prom crown, come hell or high water.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Dream SMP Ensemble & TommyInnit, Floris | Fundy & Niki | Nihachu, Ranboo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Tommyinnit & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Zak Ahmed & Darryl Noveschosch, Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	TommyInnit Wins The Prom

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for tuning in for my newest hyperfixation within a hyperfixation
> 
> this fic is going to be (very very roughly) following the election arc, but with lots of references and other arcs thrown in for some extra spice, and all the characters are there rather than being introduced later on. minx's epic smp persona is also here because i needed another girl character and hannah didnt fit (though she will make an appearance! im aiming for every dsmp member to have at least a minor role in this). if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! there's a lot going on in this fic and it can get confusing.
> 
> big shoutout to my friends cody and syd for reading this fic as im writing it and hyping me up. love you guys sm

Tommy was never pleased about moving to America. It was unnecessary, inconvenient even, and even if it was for Phil’s job, that didn’t mean he couldn’t kick up a fuss about it. He hated the United States. He missed England. 

In his opinion, really, the only good thing that came from the USA was Tubbo, and Tubbo was originally English like him anyways, so that barely counted. However, at the end of the day, he had to recognize that he couldn’t return to his home country until he went to uni, and so to make his imprisonment more enjoyable, he made a list. 

Not any list, but an _awesome_ list. A _pog_ list, even! A list that had a set of achievements that could only be completed in the Americas, as far as he was aware anyways, ranging from mundane to extraordinary. 

Wrestle an alligator. Visit New York City. See a luna moth. Defeat Jeff Bezos. All good goals. And if, maybe, just maybe, “become prom king” was on that list, then it wasn’t in the dumb pussy way that vapid teen girls wanted to be prom queen. Totally not. No. Tommy wanted to be prom king because he was the greatest and it just made sense. 

Tommy wanted to be prom king because he deserved it. Tommy wanted to be prom king, and as soon as April rolled around his freshman year, he was on the warpath. 

Of course, forcing your way into being prom king when you’re not even old enough to attend prom was difficult, but Tommy always had a plan. Naturally, it was helpful that the small shitty high school he was attending was, well, small and shitty, and as a result he knew almost everyone on the prom committee personally and could harass them as much as he pleased. He leaned against the lockers, tapping his foot against his backpack and scanning the corkboard further up the hall. Usually, the corkboard was barren, as only the student council ever really used it. A notice about a bake sale from a week ago, the schedule of that month’s sports games, maybe a poster about a lost hamster after someone decided it’d be a great idea to bring their pet to school. Right now, however, it was clear that Tommy wasn’t the only one who had jumped onto the prom season hype.

Multiple copies of the same two posters hung from the board, overlapping one another and competing for space as if they were hung at the same time. The larger of the two was fully black and red - the printing cost for them must have been _horrendous_ \- with an unnecessarily intimidating font for the otherwise simple words. ‘Schlatt for Prom King’; in smaller print underneath, ‘thinking about dances’. The other poster was much brighter and more eye-catching, though whether that was a good thing or not was debatable. A medium blue paper with splashes and dots of yellow littering the background, the white text overlaid over the mess of colors was almost illegible: ‘Prom King Quackity! Please vote Big Q! Alex ‘Prom King Quackity’ Quackity!’ then the word ‘please’ written over and over in increasingly small text. Honestly, Tommy was only half sure that was what the shrinking text said from passing by it earlier; from here, it seemed more like just some stupid white scribbles.

The first lunch bell rang and he jolted back to attention, a shark-like grin reaching his face. He scooped up his bag, staring intensely at the juniors leaving the classroom ahead of him, and his grin only grew when his eyes landed on his target. Sapnap’s eyes met his just as quickly and the junior froze before starting to bolt away. 

“Sapnap! Saaapnap, come here, big man!” Tommy said, heads around them turning at the sound of his loud voice. The heads then turned in Sapnap’s direction, who stopped with a sigh and turned back to the freshman.

“Make it quick, man, I’m supposed to get food with Dream and George,” Sapnap griped, running a hand through his hair dramatically. Tommy rolled his eyes, half-jogging to catch up with him, and the two began walking to the cafeteria together.

“You’re on the prom committee, right, Sapnap?”

“Yeah. You know that. If you’re asking about prom stuff, shouldn’t you go to, you know, your brother? Wilbur cares a lot more than I do anyways, he’s head of the committee and all.” Sapnap stretched his arms in the air and tucked them behind his head. Yeah, Tommy was aware of that, and honestly, there were quite a few people he would have been more willing to harass about this. However, Sapnap, Dream, and George were the only ones in the same lunch blocks as Tommy, and out of that group, he knew Sapnap’s schedule the best. Too long, didn’t fucking read, Sapnap was the easiest to corner.

“I don’t think Wilbur would help me out here so I’m asking you instead, because we’re such good friends, because you’re so cool and helpful and you like me so much because again, we’re such good friends,” Tommy said and Sapnap slowed down, turning his full body to face Tommy.

“What do you want, Tommy?”

“Can you sign me up to run for prom king?”

There was a moment of silence before Sapnap burst out laughing, causing a few people around them to startle and glance over. Sapnap stopped walking in favor of grabbing his stomach as if his laughter was going to pull him apart or something stupid like that. Tommy could feel his cheeks burn red - not that he was embarrassed, no, not for himself anyways, he was definitely embarrassed for Sapnap and didn’t feel like an idiot right now - and he slammed the heel of his hand into the older teen’s arm. Sapnap seemed utterly unaffected by the blow, though his laughter lessened afterwards. He raised a hand to wipe at his eyes.

“Very funny, Tommy. That’s a great April Fools’ joke or whatever. I mean, not really, but I appreciate the effort.” Sapnap gave a last snicker and adjusted his backpack, setting off to keep walking.

“It’s not a fucking April Fools’ joke! Even if it was, it wouldn’t have been funny enough to prompt that response, asshole- Hear me out, you never even try to usually, so just shut up! Listen to me for a second, man, I wanna be prom king!” Tommy’s voice was _not_ a whine, of course, thank you very much. Sapnap’s face was disgruntled because he was realizing how much Tommy deserved this, not because he was annoyed. He stepped closer to Sapnap, tugging on his arm as if he were a small child rather than several inches taller than him, and leaned in to almost-whisper (quietly yell), “I’m not pulling on your leg or whatever, I’m serious! Sign me up to be prom king!”

To his credit, Sapnap didn’t shove Tommy off or even wave him off, which is what most people did when Tommy latched onto them and started talking in their ear. He just rolled his eyes and kept walking, letting the freshman tag along. By now the hallway was mostly empty, so he didn’t bother returning the stage whisper. “Tommy, you’re not as big of an idiot as people say you are, so clearly you know that you can’t be prom king as an underclassman. Don’t bother me with questions you know the answer to already. Just because I’m not Wilbur or George or whatever doesn’t mean I don’t know the rules.”

“Oh come on, Sapnap, those rules are so _stupid!_ You know, the underclassmen don’t even get a big dance, so why can’t we go to prom?!” Tommy slumped over dramatically, letting go of his sleeve.

“There’s literally three other dances that everyone in school can attend, just go to those, nimrod,” Sapnap said, fixing his sleeve from where the other had pulled it up by accident. When did Sapnap started following the sweater paw trend? Whatever, focus Tommy, not important right now.

“But there’s no prom court for those! You’re not understanding, that’s the thing I need here, I need to win prom king! It’s not about the dance itself, it’s about the court, it’s about the prestige!” Tommy clung onto Sapnap’s arm again, pinching his sleeve back up to where it was, and the junior sighed. He whined wordlessly in return, just increasing in volume as his friend replied. 

“Tommy, I’m not just going to bend the rules for you. Wilbur wouldn’t let me even if I tried, and believe it or not, I kinda wanna go to prom so I’m not getting on his nerves.”

“What, gonna be Quackity’s prom queen?” Tommy asked, pausing in his whines for a moment in favor of prodding Sapnap’s side. The junior let out an uncharacteristic squeaky noise at the jab, shoving Tommy away, and he snickered at the bright red reaching his face. Sapnap began advancing on him as he said, “Awww, is Sapnap embarrassed?”

“No, you little bitch—”

“Be nice to me! Be nice to me! I’m a freshman, I am a fresh man! The freshest!” Sapnap got a step too close and Tommy threw his hands up and moved back, goofily falling into the part of a nervous child. “Don’t hurt me, I’m the freshest man!”

“Whatever, Tommy.” Sapnap huffed and stood down, more bark than bite in the end. “I uh, was gonna ask Karl actually, since Quackity is gonna be busy doing prom king shit, and Karl doesn’t want to be involved and I’m not even allowed to. We’re probably going to spend the whole night with him anyways, but still.”

“Does Big Q know you’re asking Karl?” Tommy asked, head tilting to the side. Sapnap’s long silence was more than telling, only compounded by the way he began fixing the white headband wrapped neatly around his head. “You better tell him that real quick, man, or he’s gonna throw a fit.”

“I know, I know!”

“He’s all melodramatic and shit,” he continued without pause, over enunciating ‘melodramatic’. “He’ll pull out a voice modifier, fake cry then pretend to kick your ass, then leave you for a different woman.”

“Karl and I aren’t women.”

“No but he will leave you for one! It’ll be Dream and Fundy’s date freshmen year all over again.”

“You weren’t even there for that, how do you know about—” Sapnap paused in the middle of his sentence, coming to a complete standstill and staring ahead down the hallway. “Holy shit. Fundy.”

“Yes, Fundy. The furry. Fox fucker. That Fundy. What about him?”

Sapnap was silent a moment, then looked at Tommy with an appraising look on his face. Tommy shifted his weight from foot to foot, suddenly far more aware of the slouch in his shoulders and wondering if his hair had fallen out of place. He brushed it back. It fell exactly the same way it always did. 

“Tommy,” Sapnap said, voice slow and careful. “You said you wanted to run for prom king.”

“That I did, big man, though I don’t see what that has to do with Fundy at all.”

“If you do a favor for me, I’ll convince the prom committee to let you run for prom king. You just have to do one favor for me, and it’s gonna be your only shot so you have to do it right.”

Tommy processed Sapnap’s words for a moment, then brightened up, nodding so eagerly his brain felt jostled. “Consider it done! I’ll do it so well you’ll let me run _twice!”_

“Sure, sure,” Sapnap said, dismissing Tommy’s enthusiasm with a wave of his hand. “Okay, Fundy has the last lunch period, right, and he always goes to the bathroom at the end of lunch before the class afterwards. I need you to distract him so he’s late to his next class.”

“What, why? Actually, why do you know all that, are you stalking Fundy or something? Does he owe you money? Did he steal your shit?”

“What- no, Tommy, stop asking questions. Does it really matter all that much?” Sapnap waved his hand again, more aggressively now. “I just need you to distract for at least ten minutes or so, that’s all. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, sure, but aren’t you going to give me some fucking instructions? You think I can just magically trap him in somewhere, what the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“The how is up to you. That ain’t my job or else I wouldn’t have to ask you for help,” the other said, shaking his head. He backed up, turned on his heel, and began stalking down the hallway. “I’m gonna go hang with the boys now, see you Tommy. George’s mom’s cooking calls. Fulfill your duty, I’ll know if you lie about it.”

“See you later, prick!” Tommy called, a tad more loud than really necessary, then started off in the opposite direction, the long way to the cafeteria. He was pretty sure they were both going to the same room, but it was the principle of the matter. Their dramatic confrontation was done, their important deal was struck, their vague threats were made. Now they had to go their separate ways and Sapnap had the good luck to go first and take the fast way. Tommy respectfully abdicated the path to him with no complaints. 

No complaints until he missed the lunch line, anyways, grumbling as Tubbo handed him bits of food and he explained why he was late. 

“You know, mate, I’m sure they’d let you go through the line. All the lunch ladies do is stand there anyways, they’re not exactly busy.”

“Shut it, Jack Manifold!” Tommy threw his hands up in annoyance before gratefully taking some of the bun Tubbo offered, torn off from the edge of his hamburger. He slumped forward once he shoved the food in his mouth. The school cafeteria was as noisy as ever and their spot right in the middle of it didn’t help much at all. He felt his elbow touch something sticky and jolted upright, nearly knocking over Ranboo’s tray. “I’m all nervous and shit after my deal with Sapnap, I can’t talk to kindly older women at the moment! I’ll say some stupid shit or shake or fail to look ‘em in the eyes, man, it’d be a disaster. They can smell fear, you know.”

“It’s just asking for some food,” Tubbo noted, playfully confused, though he still handed Tommy some French fries. Tommy took the fries. Ranboo offered him some potato chips from his lunch. Tommy took the chips. Jack gave him nothing. Tommy shot him a look that implied an impending argument, though Ranboo wisely cut him off before he could even start. 

“Why did you make that deal anyways? You’ve told us you have to distract Fundy, but you haven’t explained the why of it all.” Ranboo rested his elbow on the table and his cheek against his hand, raising his eyebrows. Tommy’s face lit up and for whatever reason this seemed to alarm Ranboo a bit, his heterochromatic eyes darting away nervously. Tommy always stared at the green one because it was less unnerving than the bright red one, so he was staring this particular eye dead on as he made his announcement. 

“I forgot to tell you! Boys, I’m running for prom king!” Tommy puffed up in pride, excited for their surely excited responses. His eyes squeezed shut, a cheery grin overtaking his face. 

“Oh. That’s neat!” Tubbo said, confused once again though more polite this time, but his words were drowned out by Jack’s obnoxious laughter. 

“Are you really that stupid, Tommy? You can’t become prom king, you’re a bloody freshman!” Jack leaned forward as if that would somehow unlock the mystery of Tommy’s reasoning. “Wait a couple years.”

“Nah, mate, you don’t understand. I’ve got an _in_ , I’ve got it all sorted! See, Sapnap agreed to let me run from prom king as long as I do him that favor!” Tommy waved his friend off, shaking his head.

“I don’t think he can do that,” Ranboo said. None of the other boys responded. “Really, guys, I don’t think you can just break the rules like that.”

“Well, he’s breaking the rules like that for me, so whatever, who cares!”

“It’s your main character energy coming into play,” Tubbo agreed. “Logic doesn’t apply to you.”

“See, Tubbo gets it!”

“No, it doesn’t work like that,” Jack argued, sitting up and adjusting his 3D glasses. “You don’t just get to run for prom king, it doesn’t make sense.”

_”Well Sapnap is letting me run so I guess it fucking works like that-”_ Tommy said in return, voice raising into a shout, and Ranboo slammed his hands down to interrupt them before they caught too much attention from the people around them.

“Okay, okay, we get it, we get it, it’s illogical but it’s happening anyways. Honestly, Tommy, I don’t think you should trust Sapnap so blindly, but that’s not- I mean, that kind of still is- but- uh-”

“I think what Ranboo is getting at is, what are you gonna do about Fundy?” Tubbo said, waving a hand, and the other nodded gratefully. “You have to, what, keep him away from his class? How? Isn’t that programming, he loves programming, surely he won’t let himself get pulled away from that.”

“No, I thought they have history class,” Jack said, sticking a finger in the air. “Him and Sapnap.”

“Oh, well that’s great then, much easier to distract Fundy from!”

“Fuck, what am I going to do,” Tommy said, the question sounding more like a statement as he stared at the table. He traced his finger along the fake grain texture of the fake wooden table, trying to consider his options as Tubbo and Jack started arguing with one another. Considering the amount of time he spent with Fundy, honestly, he should have a good idea of what to do. _Should_ being the keyword there. Really, Tommy was quite observant when he wanted to be, but well, furry boy didn’t exactly catch his interest all that much. He was just the kid who Tommy’s older brother Wilbur adopted for seemingly no reason and now they both ran around calling each other ‘dad’ and ‘son’ while everyone else pretended it wasn’t happening. There were rumors going around that Fundy owned a fursuit but other than an odd attachment to foxes and an abundance of corresponding charms, there was no real proof of that; if anything, the only evidence was how vitriolically Fundy denied all of it. Other than that, Tommy knew that Fundy really didn’t like him, enjoyed computer programming and pickpocketing, and was good friends with Niki and-

Ranboo was already avoiding his gaze when Tommy’s eyes shot up to look at him. It was like the taller teen had a sixth sense for when he was about to be pressured into something. 

“Ranboo,” Tommy called and Ranboo looked down harder. “Ranboo, I know you can hear me. Tell me what to do about Fundy. You two are good friends, you’ll know.”

Jack and Tubbo fell silent and all three of them turned to look at Ranboo with inquisitive eyes. He withered under their collective gaze, hands pulling up to his chest and fidgeting. His fingers laced together, unlaced, then laced again. He began tapping his heel against the ground at a jittery pace. His eyes slid away from the table, darting around the lunchroom for anything else to stare at. After a valiant four and a half seconds, he crumbled under the gaze. 

“Fundy always goes to the bathroom after lunch, he likes to check his hair and make sure there’s nothing in his teeth. You can stop him then.”

“Sapnap already told me that,” Tommy said, leaning in a bit. “Tell me how I’m meant to keep him there.”

Ranboo crumpled further. “Uh… you’re good at crocodile tears, right?”

Yes. Yes he was.

Tommy sat at the back of his class, practicing his soft sniffles and ignoring the worried glances of his classmates around him. Tubbo seemed a bit mortified to be with him but was watching the clock for him, turning between keeping a diligent eye on the clock and shooting a winning smile at the other people in the room so they’d stop glancing back at Tommy. Soon enough, it hit six minutes until last lunch had to leave the cafeteria, and Tubbo shot to his feet. His hip bumped against his textbook, sending it tumbling to the ground, and he raised his hand amidst the loud crash and everyone whipping to look at him in surprise.

“Ma’am, can I take Tommy to the bathroom? He doesn’t feel very well.” Tubbo’s hand was still up on the air even as he winced at their teacher’s sharp gaze. She stared at him for a moment, then at Tommy, who was still forcing himself to tear up and sniff. She pulled her eyes away as she noticed how watery his own were, sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose as if she could sense the mischief about to occur.

“It can’t wait?”

Tommy and Tubbo both aggressively shook their heads at the same time. She sighed again, louder.

“Tommy can walk himself, Tubbo. Tommy, go take a walk and come back when you’re doing better, alright? Uh, drop by the guidance counselor if you need.”

“Totally not gonna do that but thank you,” Tommy responded, giving one last theatrical sniffle before hopping up and kicking his bag over to Tubbo. With no other words, he left the classroom and rubbed at his eyes, gaze stuck on the ground as he walked to the bathrooms closest to the cafeteria. It never hurt to keep up a pathetic performance just in case someone who knew Fundy saw him walking by. It would suck for all of his hardwork to be thrown away just because of one stupid blabbermouth ruining everything and telling the furry bitch that Tommy was grinning triumphantly at the thought of sobbing into Fundy’s shirt.

The hinges of the bathroom door squeaked as he shouldered it open, crinkling his nose as he took into the immediate mess. The bathrooms in England were much cleaner. He had no way to prove this, since he was the type of person who avoided any public bathroom as much as possible and therefore did not remember any English bathroom beside the one in his own childhood home, but it was just something he knew with his soul. English bathrooms were cleaner than American ones, they had to be. He kicked aside some toilet paper that sat in a bunch on the floor, for some fucking reason, and made his way over to the sinks to splash some water on his face.

This was going to be the performance of a lifetime. For extra oomph, he took a slow breath and slammed the heel of his right foot into his left ankle, letting out a loud curse and hopping back a bit from the counters. Sure enough, real tears began building in his eyes and he sniffled, rubbing his nose and trying to memorize the sensation of water pricking in his tear ducts. He just had to push that feeling further. He sniffed louder, something tickling the back of his nose as it began to run, and a small smile flashed across his face before the door behind him started opening.

In a flash, Tommy’s hand was up over his mouth as he let out a choked up sob, hiding as he fought down the cheered smile. The realization that the person behind him was someone he knew but definitely _not_ Fundy helped, his cheeks flushing red in embarrassment as Purpled’s did the same. He stared for a moment, then wheeled around on his heel, shoving the teen behind him out with a frantic whisper of “get out Walli, it smells like lore in here.”

Tommy hoped that they didn’t bring this moment up to anyone but internally braced himself for the frantic texts from Wilbur regardless. Purpled wasn't known for keeping his mouth shut. He left his phone in his backpack in his and Tubbo’s class, so if it started blowing up and interrupting their lecture while he was gone, that wasn’t his problem anyways. He slumped over the sink counter, examining how convincing his puffy eyes were - really fucking convincing, if he said so himself, though he gave himself another pointed kick to the ankle - and jolted around when the door opened again. This time, he met eyes with his intended target, and dramatically dropped his shoulders down as if he held a world’s worth of weary on them.

“Tommy?” Fundy asked, eyes going wide at the wheezing teary gasps from the freshman. The immediate concern in his voice was touching, if honestly a bit shocking, considering Fundy often talked as if he would be glad if Tommy got his ass kicked. The older teen stepped into the bathroom fully, turning to lock the door behind him. Perfect. “Woah, hey, hey, what’s up? Are you okay?”

“Don’t- don’t tell Wilbur,” Tommy said quickly, letting himself shake as if overcome with emotion. Fundy’s brow creased and Tommy let out a small hiccup of laughter. “He’ll get mad, then Techno’ll get mad and he’ll start a fight and it’ll be such a mess, all because one kid was rude to me, and honestly it’s so stupid that I’m crying right now in the first place, you know? I’m so stupid.”

Fundy dropped his bag onto the ground and stepped closer, putting a hand on Tommy’s forearm and looking into his eyes. Tommy tensed up, wondering if he had been caught, but the junior didn’t seem to question his legitimacy at all. It was like he just assumed all people crying in public bathrooms were actually sad, like some sort of soft-hearted idiot. “You’re not stupid at all, Tommy. I won’t tell your brothers if you don’t want me to, but what happened? If people are being rude to you, we should at least tell your dad. Stuff can escalate quickly, y’know, we don’t want things getting out of hand and you getting hurt. Well, hurt even more than you are now, anyways.”

It was a good thing Tommy was so stubborn about talking about his problems, because it meant he didn’t really have to think about a cover story at all at the moment. “I don’t- I don’t need to talk about it, Fundy. I’m fine, I’m a big man, I can handle this. Don’t need you running in and saving me like I’m some shitty little girl or something.” He dropped his gaze to their feet, digging the toe of his right shoe into the sticky ground, and gave a noticeable sniffle even as he tried to square off his shoulders. The warning bell rang, though neither of the teens acknowledged it verbally. Fundy began pulling his hand back and Tommy grabbed onto his sleeve, looking back up with a betrayed expression.

“I’m not trying to make you feel inferior, Tommy, I just want to help. You don’t have to talk about it but you’re my friend, it’s natural that I’m going to worry after you.” Fundy detangled Tommy’s hand from his wrist, gentle as he could, and held Tommy’s wrist in return as he turned and began grabbing paper towels. Tommy watched as Fundy moved to the sink, struggling to turn it on and wet the towels with one hand, and felt a single twinge of guilt deep in his gut. He pushed the feeling away. Fundy would never know that Tommy was lying, so it was fine. The junior turned back to him, letting go of Tommy’s wrist, and dabbed the now wet and soft paper towels underneath his eyes. “Let me know if this hurts at all, I know the paper towels at this school are scratchy as hell.”

“What are you doing?” Tommy tilted his head in confusion, almost forgetting to add in a small sniff after his sentence. With a slight whine, he said, “you’re getting my face even more wet than it was.”

Fundy tsked as Tommy moved, whacking his shoulder and rolling his eyes. “I’m making it so your face doesn’t get all puffy and red, stupid. You said you don’t want people to know you were crying, right? This will make it so your face will look closer to normal. Now hold still.”

The final bell for the next class period rang and Fundy winced a bit, though he didn’t let the movement affect his care for the freshman’s face. Tommy was silent for a moment, a stronger stab of guilt embedding itself into him. “Aw, man, Fundy,” he said, voice weak. “You’re a good friend.”

“I know!” Fundy wiped at the corner of Tommy’s eye then pulled back, biting his lip. Tommy focused all of his attention on the fox pins attached to his jacket lapel rather than the poorly concealed worry on his face. “I don’t know how much more I can do for you, but if you hold wet paper towels against your eye bags, that should help. Might lighten them up a bit as well, huh? Hah!”

His eyes darted up when Fundy pulled further back, handing Tommy the towels and moving to his bag. Fuck. Fuck, Fundy was leaving.

“I gotta get to class, but please text me once you’re feeling better, okay? I know we don’t get along all the time, but you are my friend. My uncle or whatever Wilbur’s always going on about. I’m here if you need to talk.”

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Tommy suppressed the guilt building up in him and pulled out his trump card. Fundy would never know.

In the most pathetic voice he could manage, he whimpered out, “you’re not going to leave me, are you?”

Fundy went stock-still, hand on the arm strap of his backpack. After a brief pause, he responded, “well, I got someth-”

“You’re leaving me!” Tommy let his voice pitch up in distress, forcing himself to choke a bit as if a new wave of tears were about to pour down his face. He was going to need so much cola once he got home, he felt like he had cried out all of the water he had drunk all week at this point. “Wh-what the hell’s wrong with you, man?! I’m in here crying and you’re just leaving me here! You’re fucking abandoning me in my moment of need! What, I say one thing about not wanting to talk about it and you throw some water on my face and you think that you’re off scot free? You think that I’m magically fucking cured of my ailment?!”

“No, no!” Fundy jerked upright and turned back to him, waving his free hand in a frantic windshield wiper movement. His other hand was still on his bag, something Tommy pointedly zeroed his eyes in on. Fundy started dropping it as if it was a hot iron, then tightened his grip at the last moment. “I just- I’m gonna go get a friend, okay? I need to go, but I’m going to go get someone else for you. Where is Wilbur usually this time of day?”

Wilbur. Perfect choice, Fundy. Tommy let himself get too wrapped up in his own performance to think about the emotional distress he was causing his friend.

“You said you weren’t going to tell him! You’re such a fucking liar!” Tommy stomped his left foot against the ground, a few fresh tears forced to leak out of his eyes. He was seriously running out of liquid in his body, so most of his performance from here on out would have to be body language. “Do you even actually care about me?!”

“Of course I care about you! I just wiped up your fucking face and spoke softly to you and shit, what do you mean I don’t care about you?!” Fundy groaned and dropped his bag, throwing out his arms.

“Well you said it, not me!”

“No I _didn’t!_ You literally implied it!” He rubbed his eyes in frustration and the fight to not glare at Tommy was obvious on his face. “Okay, fine, I won’t get Wilbur. Who do you want me to get then?”

“I don’t want you to get anyone, Fundy, I want you to stay here with me!”

“Tommy, if I had a less important class right now, I would stay. But Sapnap and I are supposed to be doing a presentation-” Fundy paused and pushed up his jacket sleeve, looking at a watch strapped to his wrist and visibly paling. “Five minutes ago. Oh God, I definitely missed it. Tommy, tell me who you want me to get, and I’ll get them for you, but I need to _go._ I’ll get anyone you need, I promise.”

Tommy was silent a moment, considering his options. On one hand, he was pretty sure he had distracted Fundy for long enough. He had missed the first five minutes of class, that was all Sapnap probably needed, and Tommy needed to get his bag from Tubbo and make his way to his own class. It probably wouldn’t hurt to let Fundy go now. But on the other hand, he really didn’t want to risk failing Sapnap. This task was his only shot of getting to his goal, and almost as troubling, Sapnap was vengeful when he was let down. He could already picture him telling Fundy how Tommy had purposefully played with his heart. There was no way Tommy was going to be careless.

“Can you get me Dream?”

Fundy deflated at that request, a pained expression appearing on his face before he could hide it. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Dream and Fundy weren’t on the best of terms - the ill will was more on Fundy’s side than Dream’s, though the green hoodie wearing teen obviously made a point to avoid the other - and even more so than that, Dream was just hard to get a hold on during school. He kept his phone pointedly turned off during classes he liked due to how easily he got distracted by it. He had an obvious lack of internet presence this time of day, something that was bemoaned in enough group chats for both Tommy and Fundy to be fairly aware Dream was in a class he enjoyed, meaning Fundy would have to go track down Dream in person and then convince him to come back here. Even with Fundy’s habit of stubbornly committing to his plans, it would still have to take at least three minutes for him to track down Dream, more likely close to ten, and only God knew if Dream had the good humor in him to let Fundy easily convince him to check on Tommy.

In Tommy’s highly professional opinion, he had chosen the perfect person in this situation, and Sapnap oughta pay him an extra $15 for his cleverness.

“Tommy, I dunno about-”

“You said anyone!”

“Fine! Fine!” Fundy groaned and pulled his phone out of his pocket, thumb dancing around the screen as he navigated around and typed out a message with one hand. With his other hand, he blindly pulled on his backpack then fumbled to unlock the bathroom door, gaze stuck on his phone. “Just stay here, I’ll get Dream for you soon. Like I said earlier, text me once you can, okay? And text me tonight to let me know if you’re feeling better. I’ll see you around.”

“You’re a good friend, Fundy,” Tommy repeated, leaning against the bathroom counter and letting his posture slump forward. Fundy nodded, looking up from his phone to give Tommy a reassuring smile.

“Of course. You’re alright, okay man? Everything is going to turn out okay.”

Tommy nodded and Fundy whisked out of the bathroom, door slamming loudly behind him. Yeah. Yeah, Tommy thought, waiting a moment before he slipped out through the door. He turned the corner, paying attention to not let his shoes squeak against the floor, and started walking to Tubbo’s class with a pep in his step. Yeah, Fundy was right. Everything was going to be okay.

...

“What do you mean, Tommy was upset a couple days ago?” Niki asked, voice pinched in concern. Ranboo suddenly felt horribly interested in the shops they were passing as they walked through the mall, stirring his straw around in his bubble tea. He didn’t even like tea like that much, so he couldn’t get overly invested in his drink to avoid the conversation happening around him. They walked through the mall every Saturday evening and there were no new kiosks or stores, so those couldn’t catch his interest. He couldn’t even entertain himself by looking at his phone, as it was in Fundy’s bag and he wasn’t going to stop them just to grab it. He silently willed his hearing to stop or for his brain to stop processing words as Niki tilted her head and continued, “Did you tell Wilbur?”

“Tommy asked me not to tell anyone but he never ended up texting me to say he was okay, so I’m worried he might still be upset.” Fundy rubbed his chin, a troubled expression marring his face, and Ranboo’s shoulders pulled down to the earth. The overwhelming weight of guilt was a heavy burden to carry, apparently. “He asked me to get Dream for him, but when Dream got there, Tommy was gone. So now I owe Dream this stupid favor that I don’t even understand for no reason, I’ve been worried about Tommy for days on end, _and_ I missed Sapnap and I’s presentation at the beginning of that class so my teacher thinks I didn’t do the work!”

Niki shifted her weight, head tilting. “Wait, ah, what was Dream’s favor?”

At the same time, Ranboo thoughtlessly commented, “oh, that’s why Sapnap wanted it to happen that period.”

Ranboo froze. Fundy froze. Niki looked between the two of them and slowed her pace, turning back and facing them so they formed a loose triangular formation in the middle of the mall walkway. Ranboo almost felt a bit like he was making a game plan with a sports team, except for the second time this week, there were pairs of eyes staring daggers at him and making him wither down into the floor beneath him. This time, he lasted three seconds before speaking up. 

“What was Dream’s favor?”

“No, you’re not getting out of this,” Niki said, standing up straighter and crossing her arms. She wasn’t nearly tall enough to physically intimidate Ranboo, but he shied away under her gaze anyways. He wasn’t that hard to scare and she knew that. She’s such a good friend, he thought absently, she notices things about me. “What was that supposed to mean, Sapnap wanted it to be that period?”

“He, uhhh, was uh, really excited for that presentation and mentioned it to me,” Ranboo lied on the spot. He knew it was obvious he was lying, and he could tell Niki and Fundy also knew it was obvious he was lying. It was just a question of if they felt the need to push him on it, and he was incredibly desperately hopeful that they wouldn’t. He conspicuously raised his cup to his mouth and took a long sip of tea, letting out a choked cough when a boba pearl unexpectedly popped out of the straw and hit the back of his throat. Niki and Fundy moved to him in an instant, Fundy grabbing his tea and Niki rubbing his back, which was comforting but also made him feel a bit like a helpless child.

Softly, practically in Ranboo’s ear as she patted his back a couple times and he let out some harsh coughs, she said, “what happened? Why are you lying, is something wrong? If Sapnap did anything-”

“No, no, it’s alright,” Ranboo said as he saw a protective fire flare up in her eyes, slipping out from under her arm and rubbing his throat. Fundy handed him his drink back after a moment and he sighed, holding the cool plastic against his neck, head tilted to the side so it wouldn’t spill. Niki still had that light in her eyes and Fundy seemed like he would get there in a minute, so he choppily continued, “I mean, he did- Sapnap did do something but- I don’t think I’m allowed to explain. You’ll be mad. At me.”

“Why would we be mad at you for something Sapnap did?” Fundy frowned, crossing his arms.

“I sorta helped,” Ranboo said, confessed really, shoulders slumping to the floor again and voice soft. He took a sip of his drink, gaze moving to focus on his straw even as his eyes strained from crossing. He could still feel Fundy and Niki staring at him but he refused to make direct eye contact. Maybe if he didn’t meet their eyes, he wouldn’t say more. There was a beat of silence where he really thought he’d hold his tongue for once, then he started blurting out the full story. “Tommy is running for prom king, but he’s a freshman, so of course he can’t, so for some reason he decided to beg Sapnap to let him run instead of waiting. But it’s Sapnap, you know, so Tommy had to do him a favor, and Sapnap told Tommy to distract you, Fundy, at the end of lunch. Tommy didn’t even ask why I don’t think, I’d like to think he did but I don’t trust him, but at lunch he was trying to figure out what to do and-” Ranboo took a deep breath, running out of air, and in a soft voice, finished, “and he looked at me and I told him to cry because you’re really nice and you’d help him if he cried.”

Fundy and Niki stared at him, still processing the word vomit he just spit out. Ranboo took another sip of his boba tea, wishing he could just buy tapioca pearls alone without a drink. That wasn’t at all relevant, really, but it was nicer to think about. Honestly, he was sort of surprised he still remembered helping Tommy at all, it seemed like the kind of thing he would block out immediately. He was good at that, forgetting. Once Fundy started yelling, he’d probably slip up on details-

_“You told Tommy to fake cry at me so I’d feel bad and miss my class?!”_

Ranboo’s brain went blank. Yeah. There we go.

“I- I think I did, I honestly don’t remember the details, but I don’t think Tommy would’ve thought to cry on his own. Or maybe he would, I dunno. He definitely asked me for help, cuz he texted me thanking me for it, and it seems like advice I would give.” Ranboo winced, raising his eyes to meet Fundy’s. Well, not really, more raised his eyes to stare at Fundy’s waist, silently processing the dark brown belt he wore, the fake gold buckle shadowed too much at the moment to glint in the light. It was a nice professional belt, an impression that was only ruined by the fact that Ranboo could see the end of the fox tail that was hung off the back dangling behind Fundy’s legs. Fundy snapped his fingers and Ranboo straightened, looking over Fundy’s head. It was sorta silly, the fact that Fundy had a hat with fox ears attached and wore a fox tail almost every day of his life, and yet he threw fits when people called him a furry.

“Ranboo. Look me in the eyes,” Fundy said, and he forced himself to follow his friend’s command. Wow, Ranboo hated direct eye contact and he was now miserable, actually. His eyes strayed up to Fundy’s hairline, but this was close enough for the junior, who started lecturing him. “Are you such a doormat that you let Tommy bully you into sabotaging me? Really, man? I thought we were close friends, I can’t believe you’d do that to me!”

“I mean, you also just bullied me into ratting out Tommy,” Ranboo pointed out, voice passive, and Fundy let out a groan. Niki stifled a giggle behind her hand, amused but doing her best to not show it. Ranboo wasn’t really sure why this was funny but Niki was a mysterious creature at times and he wasn’t going to question her in the middle of Fundy being mad at him anyways.

“This isn’t bullying, and even if it was, that’s okay because you betrayed me first! It’s not bullying, it’s evening the playing field.” 

“What playing field?” Niki asked, hand still covering the smile on her face. Fundy huffed, puffing up a bit as he tried to think of a defense, then his eyes went wide.

Oh, Ranboo did not like the sly smile appearing on his face at the moment. At least Fundy wasn’t looking him in the face now, allowing the freshman the freedom to duck his head and sip at his drink. A tapioca pearl dammed up the flow of tea before popping into his mouth in a burst but he was more prepared this time, focusing so much energy on not choking again that he almost missed Fundy’s next words.

“Well, if Tommy’s willing to fuck me over to be prom king, I reckon I should return the favor, y’know?” Fundy stood up straighter, adjusting his hat. The sly smile was a full grown grin now, eyes alight with mischief. Last time Fundy looked like this, an entire high school hallway had been covered with small paper cups filled with water and HBomb had been blamed despite being out sick for three days. It was a dangerous look, one that implied an impending battle of wits that only Fundy was on a high enough level of unhinged to participate in. “I think I’m going to run for prom king. Sure would hurt if Tommy went through all of this effort just to lose to the guy he kicked over to get there, eh?”

Ranboo chewed slowly on his tapioca pearl, brow pinching in concern. Niki’s expression was still amused but there was a sharper edge to it, a tilt in her head that showed she was expecting something. Fundy turned to her and they seemed to silently communicate for a moment. Ranboo was close with them, sure, but Fundy and Niki really had an extra level of connection he couldn’t really fathom having with someone. Whether they were bickering with one another or planning to torch the town together, they had some sort of electric unity between them that was so uniquely _theirs_ that Ranboo couldn’t even be jealous. He didn’t think he could handle the amount of silent staring between the two of them as they plotted people’s demise. Too much eye contact and furious loyalty.

“So you’ll be wanting me to run for prom queen with you, I’m sure,” Niki said after a moment, something Ranboo was grateful for. He was also simultaneously confused about where Niki’s assumption came from, but Fundy was nodding eagerly, so she must have been right on the money. Or her idea was better than whatever Fundy thought of so he was jumping ship onto hers.

“Yeah, exactly! People love you, Niki, you’ll be a shoe in, and if we present ourselves as a duo then people will vote for me as well! Tommy doesn’t get his prize for fucking people over and he has to wait patiently for prom like the rest of us. Pluuus…” Fundy dragged out the word, clasping his hands together like he was about to drop to his knees and start begging Niki. “We’ll get some goofy plastic crowns and I’ll even take you out to dinner beforehand. It’ll be a real proper platonic date, we can wear a matching tux and dress, I’ll buy you flowers. What do you say? Wanna be my prom queen, Niki, beautiful?”

Niki blushed pink at the ‘beautiful’ and laughed, shaking her head in amusement at Fundy’s theatrics. She considered for a moment, head tilting back as she tapped her chin. “Hm… well… it does sound like quite the time! I suppose I’ll have to agree.” She took Fundy’s hands in her own, giving them one steady shake. “Of course I’ll be your prom queen, Fundy. And I would _love_ to mess with Tommy a little bit.”

Fundy and Niki had matching sparks of sly mischief in their expressions and Ranboo shrunk in on himself, trying to seem casual and unconcerned as he sucked another pearl into his mouth and began chewing. This was fine. Everything would be fine. This definitely would not result in an aggressive escalation of events that Ranboo would be overwhelmed by. He knew, surely, his friends would all be reasonable human beings and not act ridiculous over something as stupid as prom.

...

“I’m not running for fuckin’ prom queen, Niki, stop looking at me with those gorgeous blue eyes of yours! You’re gonna make me cry if you puppy dog eye me any harder,” Minx bitched, crossing her arms and looking to the side with a huff. Puffy glanced between the two and shoved popcorn in her mouth, not even pretending that she was watching the movie playing in front of them rather than her two friends. In the darkness of Niki’s living room, the two were barely visible besides the harsh colored lights thrown on them by the flashing TV, casting their forms in dramatic shadow and bright outline. They were both leaning forward to talk around her and she happily sunk back into the couch, content to just watch the action and not open her own big mouth while they chatted.

If she had to be honest, she sort of hoped Niki completely forgot that she was there. It wasn’t that Puffy wouldn’t want to help Niki, she was a very good friend and Puffy liked helping out her very good friends, especially when it was Niki. However, proms weren’t quite Puffy’s style. Maybe Halloween or a masquerade or even a more generic costume party would be more her speed. She liked to play a character, have fun with it, be goofy and all that. Prom was a lot more formal. _Stifling._

All that aside though, the argument in front of her was very funny while she wasn’t involved. Niki was never the type to tempt others into doing things for her, always the sort of person to do everything she could for herself, which was probably why it was hilarious whenever she gave up on this usual personality trait and got Minx to do her bidding. Admittedly, this wasn’t exactly a hard task, considering the fact that when faced with a pretty girl making sad eyes at her, Minx was legally obligated to cave within a few minutes. It was still interesting to see it play out in real time.

“But Minx, I’m the only one running for prom queen right now! Which is, well, fine, but I’d rather not be alone.”

“I’m not leaving you alone, Niki, I’m just not fucking going on stage! I’ll look like an idiot up there with you being beautiful and winning the crown. No way.” Minx was still staring at the TV screen with an intense laser focus. It was clear from the glossed over look in her eyes that she wasn’t absorbing anything she was watching, but to be fair, neither was Puffy. Minx just needed to avoid direct contact with Niki’s award-winning kicked puppy look and she’d be all set. No prom queen for Minx. 

Puffy placed her popcorn in her mouth at a snail’s pace and chewed at the food with the speed of said snail now sludging through molasses. She was not going to risk crunching too loudly and interrupting this scene.

“If I’m alone on stage, then I might as well be completely alone. It’s not like I can get Jack or Karl to run either, Jack isn’t old enough and they’re both boys so they can’t run for prom queen,” Niki countered, a harder edge reaching her voice. Niki and Minx didn’t argue often because they both knew that Niki would win, but from the tone in the girl’s voice at the moment, she was worrying she might not come out on top this time. “Minx, look at me. I’m begging you to run with me!”

The melodrama at the moment implied that her worried tone was more for fun than actual concern, but it still got Minx to glance over at Niki and crumple up like a paper ball.

“Alright, fine. Fine! I’ll run for prom queen, but if Schlatt fuckin’ wins prom king and I somehow win queen, I’m going to fight him on the stage.”

Puffy was far too tempted to make a comment about how Minx would be just as likely to act out a tragic love affair with him on stage, but she reminded herself at the last moment that she was being quiet to avoid attention.

“Yes! Thank you, Minx, it’ll be so much fun! We don’t need to get all competitive like the boys are, we’ll just have fun with it. We can even wear matching dresses, we’ll be so cute!” Niki gushed, face brightening in delight. Her expression matched the happy color of her pink hair, catching the light of the TV just enough to be visible. Minx was doing the opposite, shoulders sinking down towards her hips and shadows casting her face in darkness as she tilted her head forward.

“Isn’t the point of prom being unique and shit? We can’t wear matching dresses, Niki, it’s against the rules or whatever.” 

“Who cares about the rules? Fuck the rules!” It was honestly way too adorable when Niki swore while grinning like a kid in a candy store. It wasn’t like she ever shied away from it, but it was still something special. A little bit like seeing Skeppy swear, actually, where it wasn’t uncommon but they gave off such strong ‘child entertainer’ vibes that it felt like seeing Elmo fuck a bottle of whiskey.

That example was a bit extreme. Puffy internally apologized to Bad, as if he could read her thoughts at the moment. For good measure, she added in an, “if you’re reading my mind right now, you owe me a muffin,” then her thoughts started spiraling away from the situation as present. She only tuned back into existence at the sound of her custom text tone for Foolish going off, the chorus notes of ‘Baby Shark’ ringing out of her phone.

She blinked and pulled out her phone, tapping to open his text. It was almost never off of silent mode, but Foolish had asked her to be available that night. She would do anything she could to help out her dearest son who wasn’t really her son, but she took him under her wing when he transferred into their school and he called her ‘papa’ more than her name, so really, he was definitely her son.

As she responded to the image Foolish had taken of Foolish Jr. eating dinner - Foolish Jr. was an American Girl Truly Me™ doll that someone had brought and lost at school (finders keepers was applicable only for rich people’s things), Puffy had brought it to Foolish because it looked startlingly like him, and now Puffy had a grandson - she became suddenly aware of the stretched out silence. She looked up. Niki and Minx were looking back at her. It took a moment to realize why her brain went into panic mode at that.

“Y’know, Puffy,” Minx started.

At the same time, Puffy blurted out, “you are _not_ getting me to run for prom queen with you guys!”

Niki looked startled, as if she didn’t even consider this as an option, even though a mischievous glint in her eye clearly showed that she did. Minx’s face broke into a bold grin.

“Aw, come on, why not? You really gonna make Niki cry by not running?”

“I’m not going to cry over it,” Niki argued with a giggle, raising her hand to half-cover her mouth. “Unless that’ll get Puffy to run. What do you think, Puffy? Should I try crying?”

“No, please, don’t cry,” Puffy responded with a whine. Her hands raised to her chest and her phone bumped against her collarbone. She let out a soft hiss of pain but stuck it out, doing her best to match Niki’s pleading expression with her own wide watery eyes. Minx glanced between them and reached for Puffy’s popcorn, far too similar to her previous position of watching this battle of wills like a sports game. Puffy gritted her teeth a bit.

Okay. How bad could running for prom really be? Sure, prom was going to be stuffy, but she could go with her friends. Niki was going with Fundy, so maybe her and Minx could go together or she could invite Foolish and have a family night out. She allowed herself a brief walk through her imagination. Her and Foolish in matching tuxes. Foolish Jr. in a smaller tux that was much fancier than both of theirs, because Foolish would insist he deserved the best and she absolutely agreed. Maybe she could make them all matching necklaces for an extra level of pizzazz. If she couldn’t have a costume party, she’d make it a costume party. 

“Fine, but only because my mom was upset about me not going to prom last year,” Puffy said and Niki let out a loud cheer, throwing her arms up in the air.

“It’ll be so much fun guys, we can spend the entire night together! Us and Fundy, and probably Schlatt as well, huh? Maybe Bad can hang out too if he’s not too busy with Skeppy and Antfrost and all.” Niki’s eyes were sparkling with excitement, which was honestly enough to convince Puffy that this was a wise decision.

Minx offered, “maybe we can spike the punch bowl too,” which only furthered Puffy’s conviction.

She glanced down to her cellphone, still held against her chest and open to Foolish’s texts. She tilted it to see the screen properly and quickly sent him a message: ‘do you think foolish jr would look better in florals or metallics?’

...

Sapnap was, quite honestly, bored out of his mind. He usually was during prom committee meetings. It wasn’t like he hated them; he liked everyone on the committee and they came up with lots of cool ideas and all. Prom just wasn’t really his thing and everyone knew he was mostly there to spend time with Dream and George. George was about the same level of commitment as Sapnap was, but Dream was way hard into the whole shebang. People thought he _was_ the head of the prom committee sometimes, something that Wilbur found both amusing and frustrating. Regardless, Sapnap wasn’t really paying attention, his focus trained more on keeping his balance while tilting his chair on only the back two legs.

The chair creaked underneath him and somewhere in the back of his head, Sapnap could feel Bad puffing up in anxiety and annoyance, preparing to yell his head off about staying safe. Sapnap gave a fond huff and let the chair fall back onto all four legs, expression snapping from a soft smile into an alarmed gape at the loud bang that resulted from his quick movement. The prom committee came to a screeching halt, all looking at him, and he winced under their gaze.

If it was just Dream and George, he probably could have played it off with a laugh. Same for Callahan and Alyssa, they knew him well enough to know that it was hard for him to stay quiet long. It was more Wilbur and Eret’s presence that made him feel like a scolded child at the moment, Eret wearing an amused grin and Wilbur looking like Sapnap had just shot Tommy in front of him.

“Well, I’m sorry that the theme bothered you so much, but I didn’t choose it, the school did. No need to interrupt,” Wilbur said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, and Sapnap gave an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. He shot George a look, trying to ask with his eyes how serious Wilbur was. George was always the best at reading him. George returned his gaze flatly, then stuck his tongue out, clearly not understanding what Sapnap was asking, but he wasn’t waving Sapnap to apologize in a panicked fit, so it was fine. Probably.

Maybe.

Even if it wasn’t, Sapnap could totally fight Wilbur. The Brit was taller than him by a good bit, sure, but he was also scrawny as hell. Sapnap could knock him out with one hit. Actually, now he sort of wanted to fight Wilbur. He seemed like the type to grab the nearest blunt weapon though. A vivid image of Wilbur smashing him over the head with his guitar flashed through Sapnap’s mind and he gave a shudder. 

“And now you’re shuddering in disgust. Does the theme really suck that much? I’m sorry, I’d say we could do a revote but y’know. Democracy has already decided. We can revolt if you want.”

Okay, Wilbur was definitely joking. Sapnap wouldn’t have to fight him. That was a shame, it seemed like a fun idea. Maybe he could convince the other to do a friendly tousle. If Sapnap fought Wilbur, would he be kicked off of the prom committee? He could probably join the Video Game Club with Karl and Quackity, he never minded spending time with them, but he was here to spend time with Dream and George. The three had increasingly less time with each other as of late.

“Are you going to reply to him?” Eret said, amused grin seeming more concerned now, and Sapnap blinked. Oh, right.

“Sorry, uh, no, the theme’s fine.” Sapnap had no idea what the theme was. He opened his mouth to try and make something up, but thankfully, the door to the classroom they were sat in slammed open before his brain had to generate any thoughts. George jumped, knee slamming into the table with a barely restrained curse (once again, Sapnap thought of Bad). Alyssa grabbed onto Callahan’s arm, eyes going wide with shock. Dream turned to the door without any sign of surprise. He processed what he was looking at and went pale.

“Hey Puffy,” Dream said, voice stretching into that tone he got when he was caught doing something he shouldn’t. Sapnap giggled, glancing over at the door to see Puffy, hair swaying behind her as she confidently strode in. Foolish tailed behind her, looking less confident and more like a lost puppy as he gave an awkward grin and small wave to the other committee members. Puffy didn’t feel the need to acknowledge anyone else, striding right up to Dream. 

“Puffy, maybe we should ask later-” Foolish said, fidgeting with the bag strapped to his back.

“Be quiet, son. Hello, my duckling!” Puffy clapped her hands together and Dream hopped up to his feet, waving his hands in an exaggerated panic.

“Look, I’m sorry, I lost track of time and-”

“I’m not mad at you for skipping- actually no, I am mad at you, but I’m not here to yell at you.” Puffy grinned, whacking Dream over the back of the head. Dream winced and Sapnap wondered why in the world he allowed her to do that. Dream wasn’t bad with touch, admittedly, but people didn’t even try it most of the time. He gave off too much of an intimidating untouchable aura, only Sapnap, George and maybe Tommy pushed him around really. “Duckling, how do you sign up to be prom queen?”

“Why are you asking him? I’m literally head of the prom committee. I’m right here,” Wilbur interjected, scowling, and Puffy finally seemed to realize where she was.

“Oh, you guys are doing the committee right now?”

“That’s what I was saying, Puffy,” Foolish said and she turned back to him, waving him off.

“It’s fine, this is great actually! Wilbur, I’m here to announce that Niki, Minx and I would like to run for prom queen, how do we do that?”

There was a beat of silence. Sapnap tilted his head. Huh. Niki made sense, she was fairly social, quiet but likeable. He would’ve thought Minx would rather die than run, and he didn’t know Puffy enough to make much of a judgement call there, but still.

“Niki’s running for prom queen?” Wilbur’s face was alight with joy and Sapnap let out a small huff of amusement, slumping down in his chair. He had made it abundantly clear to the committee, several times, that Niki was his best friend and he was upset that Dream got to be with his best friends while she didn’t join. Complaining was a regular pastime and this topic came up far more often than Sapnap was sure Niki was aware. Maybe they would finally be given a break from the endless bitching now that Wilbur could go help Niki with her campaign. Not that the rules technically allowed him to help her, but he wasn’t exactly the type to stick to his own word. Wilbur cleared his throat, trying to reign in some air of professionalism. “Well, uh, we have some forms right here and then you can deliver the forms to Alyssa or Callahan once they’re completely filled out, then you can start your campaigns. Just a sec.”

He began sorting through the mess of papers on the teacher’s desk - Wilbur took the teacher’s desk for the committee, of course, because he was a pretentious asshole - and pulled out some sheets of paper. Sapnap stared at the registration forms, trying to work out why they seemed incredibly important to him. He looked at Puffy. Running for prom queen. Down at the forms Wilbur was handing her. Wilbur. Form needed to run for prom court. Wilbur. Prom.

His thoughts clicked into place and he stood up without a thought, chair slamming back against the ground with the second loud bang of the day. Foolish nearly fell over as he jumped, Wilbur nearly gave himself a paper cut as he flinched, and Dream and Puffy wore nearly identical expressions of the most lackluster response in the world, just looking over at him.

“Tommy wants to run for prom king,” Sapnap declared. “He uh, told me to convince you to let him run.”

Puffy glanced between Wilbur and Sapnap for only a moment before snatching the papers from Wilbur and hurrying Foolish out of the room. She gave Dream a quick wave goodbye then let the door close behind them, much quieter than before. Sapnap stared after them. Was Foolish carrying a doll in his backpack-?

“Tommy wants to run for prom king? Why?”

Right. Sapnap was supposed to be upholding his end of the bargain. In general, he was very bad at doing that, especially when it came to Tommy. The exasperated look on Wilbur’s face indicated that this would be a funny time to give it a shot though, so Sapnap puffed up as if to give a speech and waved to George to stand up with him. George let out a groan and slumped forward over the desk he was at, head hitting the surface with a thump. 

“Uh, well! Tommy should run for prom because… he wants the prestige! Think about it.” Sapnap waved his arms dramatically and Dream repressed a grin, sharing an amused look with Alyssa. “A freshman winning prom king? That’s unheard of!”

“Because it’s against the rules,” Wilbur interjected and Sapnap kept talking as if he hadn’t heard him speak at all.

“Well, I reckon it should be heard of more often, you know? It’d probably uh, like, encourage more freshman participation around school? Like, everyone would see Tommy running for prom king and go ‘oh hell yeah, our school is so cool’, you feel me, doggy dog?”

Wilbur looked like he wanted to strangle Sapnap for real this time. George was still slumped over his desk, looking for all the world like he had fallen asleep. 

“And uh, I think it just fits our theme, you know? George, help me out here, tell Wilbur the prom theme.” He was really hoping George wasn’t actually asleep. 

“Eternal youth,” George supplied without a second’s hesitation, as if he was waiting for the question even as the desk pressed against his face muffled the words.

“Exactly! Eternal youth- wow, that’s perfect actually.” He shouldn’t have said that aloud, so he acted like he didn’t. “Eternal youth! Who can you think of whose more youthful than _Tommy?_ He literally acts like, like a middle schooler most of the time, he’s the perfect example of youth! He can be our sorta little mascot for our prom theme, it’ll be awesome.”

Dream’s head tilted curiously at that and Sapnap could see the gears in his head start whirring. Oh thank God. Dream was always far more persuasive than Sapnap could ever be, more gifted socially than he could hope for. Not that Sapnap really wanted to be more persuasive or social, he was more than content with his little circle, but it would be helpful for moments like this. Sapnap would have to stall until Dream could butt in with good reasoning. 

“Sapnap, I don’t know why you care so much, but nothing in this world could convince me to let Tommy run for prom king. It’s against the rules, for one thing, so the school would never allow it-”

Eret surprised both Wilbur and Sapnap by chiming in, “actually I don’t think the school would mind, if they even noticed. Slipping in one or two underclassmen most likely wouldn’t reach their radar. If anything, I imagine they’d just find it amusing.”

“Well- okay, yeah, probably, our school is run by a shitshow of a circus,” Wilbur conceded, clasping his hands together in front of his chest. “But I don’t want to push it, I don’t see any point in that. Besides, do you really want Tommy at our prom? It’ll be the last chance quite a few people get at prom and I don’t trust him to not ruin it. He might light something on fire.”

“To be quite honest, that would make my prom experience way better, last year was super boring,” George said. At some point, he had propped his head back up. Wilbur shot him a dry look. George let his head drop back onto the desk, pulling up his arms to use as a pillow. Seemed like he planned to nod off for real this time. Sapnap wished he could join him. 

“This is a stupid idea and I don’t know why you’re all arguing with me over it,” Wilbur began, then Dream raised a hand. 

“Actually, Wilbur, I have a compromise that might work.” He straightened, using that professional teacher voice he put on to impress people, and Sapnap sighed in relief, dropping back into his chair. Dream stood in turn, beginning to make his way over to the teacher’s desk. His chest was puffed up and his arms were crossed behind his back, walking with all of the swagger of a big shot businessman making a winning pitch. “I think that having Tommy in the running for prom king could be an excellent selling point for this year’s prom. We’ve noticed a trend of less and less people attending dances and while prom is the one most people attend, it never hurts to have an extra draw. It’s like Sapnap said, freshmen have never run for prom king before! It’ll catch people’s attention and encourage them to attend, see what all the fuss is about.”

He stopped in front of the teacher’s desk, putting his hand down on the stack of application papers Wilbur had. The older teen seemed ready to argue, opening his mouth, but Dream shook his head and beat him to the punch. 

“You’re right though. Tommy is a little… destruction muffin.” Sapnap coached himself through not laughing at Dream using ‘muffin’ in a serious discussion. “We don’t want him to mess the prom up, so we have to keep him away from the festivities. So how do we compromise these two positions?” 

He opened up his arms, turning to the committee with a questioning look, then looked back at Wilbur with the same expression. He was getting into this, and even with the doodled on mask covering his mouth, Sapnap could tell he was sporting a grin. 

“I don’t know, Dream,” George responded in a monotone, not missing a beat. Eret exchanged a look with Wilbur, the question of ‘why are Dream, George and Sapnap so in sync?’ clear in their eyes. “How _do_ we compromise these two positions?”

“The answer is simple, my friends.” Dream crossed his arms back behind his back. “Listen closely.”

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is gonna be the longest one ive ever written, but im really hopeful about finishing it! ive got something good going here, its gonna be a blast to write. comments and kudos are really appreciated!! id love some feedback
> 
> as a note - im not going to have a strict release schedule for this, since im in school and i find deadlines for fic burn me out. im gonna do my best to be consistent, but this fic is for fun, not my top priority!


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